Rogers' network failure on July 8, 2022 highlighted our society's fragile reliance on electronic payments. 

Yes, electronic payments have brought in many benefits for consumers and merchants such as the acceptance of multiple payment cards and methods. One area we did not look into with great importance is what happens in a crisis or disaster recovery situation if the infrastructure of the system fails. On July 8, 2022, electronic payment networks in Canada were interrupted like never before when many payment gateways were shut down due to no network connectivity. Debit cards, credit cards were not able to be used for payments at convenience stores, grocery stores, airports, hospitals and government agencies.

Well, the legacy technology of payment, the traditional cash, was a major winner on that day. If you had cash on hand, you had no issue of paying for what you needed. Cash is not going to go away in light of fragile and expensive electronic payment networks. A cashless society simply put too much risk on our everyday living. What if we had a failure of electricity network? When the power goes off, we had no access to the way of living we are used to. Do you still remember the widespread power outage in Ontario in 2003?

On August 14, 2003, the northeastern United States power system, and portions of the Ontario power system began to shut down. a More than 50 million people were impacted without power in Ontario and the United States of America. In Ontario, nearly all electricity service east of Wawa was down, with small pockets of electricity service remaining in Niagara and Cornwall. Restoration efforts continued for the better part of nine days until the state of emergency ended on August 22. 

Diversification of payment methods and having some cash on hand should be on everyone's mind and plan for disaster preparedness.